The Christmas Miracle
by Lone Wolf8
Summary: When a little girl gets lost on Christmas Eve, can one of Paragon's heroines get to her before the winter chill does? A short Holiday tale.


Author's Note: I thought this up while eating lunch, inspired by the song "Holding out for a Hero" when it came on the radio at the place I was eating; starring my primary hero on the Virtue server, Lady Lumos. 

- - -

Leslie Harrison sat on the couch in her loft in Steel Canyon, her life partner, Jasmine, was in the kitchen making Christmas cookies and humming Noel while the news reporter on TV threatened to over power the gentle tune with his voice.

"This just in, Amy Welsh a 7 year old girl with blonde hair and blue eyes has been reported missing. Amanda was last seen at the Atlas Park playground at 5 p.m. wearing a red coat and pants with a green hat and mittens. If you know the whereabouts of Amy please call the local police, or LongBow station." The anchor man announced before continuing with the evening news.

Jasmine had stopped humming now, looking from over the kitchen counter into the den where Leslie sat with a faint amused smile. Leslie fidgeted on the couch, she'd promised no patrols, no sudden calls to emergencies, no running off on Christmas Eve; just an evening with her lover and their daughter. Jasmine sighed, shaking her head and smiling wider now.  
"I couldn't stop you if I tried, Les… Go." 

Leslie looked up at Jasmine hesitantly. "You're certain…?"

Jasmine nodded, smiling still. "No little girl should be alone and lost on Christmas Eve baby… Go."

In a whirl of light and energy Leslie's cream hued skin turned blue and brunette hair ivory white, her civilian clothes replaced by her heroic attire dark blue and white and a long, thicker winter version of her usual cape, this one rolling forward over her shoulders like a cloak. As soon as the transformation was done and Lady Lumos stood in the loft she shot out to the balcony, racing into the air, turning into a shimmering streak in the gathering darkness left as the sun began to set behind the sky scrapers of Steel Canyon. She was probably one of the fastest in the city, the mutant ability to control light itself had assured her a place amongst the top tiers of the fastest heroes on earth, but speed was nothing in a city this large, she raced through the air as fast as she could, diving through tunnels and sky rocketing over war wall barriers in her race to reach Atlas Park before the last of the suns rays vanished to leave her to search in the cold Christmas night. 

Meanwhile, in a dark narrow alley a very scared little girl cried for her mother, huddled against a dumpster with her coat pulled tight around her and her knees tucked up to her chest as she shivered and sobbed in the darkness, looking up with fear filled eyes as soft downy flakes began to drift down to blanket the city in a coat of white before Christmas Day.   
"I want my mommy…" Amy whispered to the remorseless icy winds of the winter, her breath turning to fog as it left her lips.

Lady Lumos had calculated the time, an oxford criminology graduate, she knew how quickly a little girl would freeze in this cold air without the suns rays to shed any extra warmth on her. She'd lost the race against the sun, she didn't know if she was fast enough to beat death's hand. She soared over roof tops, the Gamester's shimmering presents could be spotted here and there and suddenly her thoughts filled with dread… Winter Lords; often the newer heroes just weren't strong enough to take them down, and the snow beasts fled in fear from the stronger heroes, many were scattered throughout the city causing havoc whenever some poor civilian stumbled across them, if those monsters found Amanda before she did the little girl wouldn't stand a chance. She sped up, calling upon the extra reserves of her energy, shooting like a comet through the now fast falling snow, wind kicking up around her and throwing the cold flakes against her face where the melted quick from the energy radiating off her as she raced through the sky. 

Somewhere in the dark alleys of Atlas Park a little girls cries for her mother went unanswered, her desperate sobs grew quieter and the fog escaped her lips less and less often as her breathing became raspier and slower while the ice and snow fell around her. She missed her mother, she missed her father, she even missed her whiny little brother Mikey, even if he was a big jerk who yanked on her pigtails and kicked her when they sat in the back seat on the way to church that morning. No one was walking by anymore, most people had already headed home for Christmas dinner, there were two men across from the alley but they looked scary, huddled in front of the fire burning in a trash can sipping some thick gold looking liquid from a bottle in a bag and coughing in the cold. She wished she had her teddy bear, she missed Mr. Fuzzles almost as much as she missed her mom. Suddenly a sound caught her attention, rasping dragging sound, the crunching of snow, it sounded big, in the darkness off the alley she saw a lumbering shape that made her shrink back against the dumpster she was huddled against, hoping she'd go unnoticed. 

Lumos glanced toward the sky and the rising moon, the very source that fueled her mutagenic power, the light of the moon, she preyed that its exposure would let her go just a bit faster. She raced over the giant globe supported by the statue of Atlas. Past the city hall with the flag fashion from Statesman's first cape fashioned to its top flag pole. She raced over the lake in the middle of Atlas Park searching the entire park for a red jacket, a green hat, any sign of Amy's presence but seeing nothing. She sighed, racing past the park flying higher, hovering in the air struggling to see through the flurry of snow flakes as she looked down to the streets below.  
A movement caught her eyes, a large burly object, its icy body glistening in the moon light, a Snow Beast the largest of the Winter Lords to attack the city this year. She dove down through the snowy sky, her fists charged with energy with flash like lightning she plowed straight through the icy creature, its snow packed body melting under the furious onslaught of her fists and the blasts of light energy she fired at it. With the beast destroyed two Frostlings caught her attention as they suddenly darted away from a dumpster a little ways away at the far end of the alley. She raced to where they had been frowning at the pile of snow they had been standing over, the look of confusion slowly gave way to horror as she saw the little tip of green fluff sticking out of the snow. Once more her hands pulsed with energy as she dropped to her knees scooping away the snow melting it with the heat from her hands.

"Amy!" She cried to the little girl as she pulled her out of the snow and up into her arms. "Amy, sweetie, can you hear me!"

The little girl's lips were blue, the colored drained from her face leaving it as white as the snow, her eyes closed and her eye lashes nearly frozen from tears that never managed to flow down her cheeks. 

"Amy? Oh gods no, no I can't be too late." Lumos murmured urgently, pulling her cape off and bundling it around the little girl. "Come on Amy! You can do it sweetie don't give up!" Lumos called to the little girl, holding her close as she raced through the air only a few feet off the ground.

She clutched the little girl close to her body, channeling the heat and warmth of the light within her to the little girl, rubbing her hands over Amy's body through the cloak to try and help spread some warmth through her limbs. She'd not made a sound, not moved a hair, nor even taken a breath from what Lumos could tell but she refused to give up, she refused to let that little girl die on Christmas. "Amy! Wake up sweet heart! Wake up, it's going to be all right!" 

Still not a peep from the blonde haired little girl clutched in the heroine's arms. She looked down at her with tears falling down her pale blue cheeks now, a long strand of her white hair falling down in front of her face. "Amy… Please wake up… Please…" 

Nothing. Not even a puff of breath from the child's lifeless lips. She wasn't fast enough. The Sun, Winter's chill, and Death were faster than she could have ever hoped to be, she was too late. With a desperate sob she hung her head, clutching the little girl to her chest, her tears falling into the snow and melting away along with it as the heat given off by the energy she channeled melted the icy cold around her. Christmas miracles were a thing of movies and child's stories, not real life, the bitter injustice of it seemed especially cruel to her now as she clutched that little girl in her glowing arms, thinking of how worried her family must be, how heart broken their Christmas day would be, what a terrible time of year it would be for them from now on. She thought bitterly of Scrooge learning how to love Christmas, of George Bailey deciding life was worth living, of the Grinch learning just what Christmas really meant. She rose to her feet and slowly lifted into the air, head still bowed and eyes closed as she drifted skyward to take the girl to the morgue and report the casualty.

"Are… You an angel…?"

The most beautiful sound Lady Lumos would ever hear, her eyes flew open as she looked down at the little Amy, bundled in the coat, shivering terrible with barely any color back into her face, but her eyes wide open with wonder as she stared up at the heroine who held her. It was the fastest she'd ever traveled, buildings became blurs around her and her precious cargo, Christmas lights flashed by nothing but a flurry of sparkling light the few cars on the road saw nothing but a shimmering light race by them so fast that to blink was to miss it entirely. 

On Christmas Day, that wonderful Christmas morning as Leslie Harrison and Jasmine and their little girl sit down to breakfast after opening gifts they saw on the morning news special, a weak but delighted little girl opening her Christmas presents in a Hospital bed, with a heroine's cape still wrapped around her shoulder's like a blanket and surrounded by her teary eyed but smiling parents and a little boy who looked surprisingly pleased to be sitting right next to his big sister looking a little to innocent to be true. That Christmas it wasn't the presents, nor the spirit of giving, nor even the knowledge of a job well done that filled Leslie with Christmas cheer, it was the smile of that one little girl, who'd come so close to death and become a Christmas miracle.

**_Merry Christmas_**


End file.
